Our busy life with an amazing veterinarian and cattleman, a gardening, quilting and history loving wife and mother, a creative perfectionist violinist, a spunky and kind epileptic princess, a sweet yet wild little man, and the most mellow and happy babe, on a joyful 1/2 acre living and loving in a beautiful mountain valley.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Our 24th of July

We celebrated the 24th of July, the day the LDS Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, in grand fashion. Matt didn't have to work. One year our friend Joe called on the 24th of July and could not figure out why Matt had the day off. Joe said that us Mormons and Utahans just make up holidays so we can get a day off every now and then. Well, whatever the case, we celebrated Pioneer Day and it was great.

We drove up in the mountains above Heber City and played. We took hamburgers to cook, bows and arrows, a soccer ball, the BB gun, and 3 15 year old boys. Here is Kelsey with her bow. She loves to do the things her dad does.

Kendal loved the party. She loves the teenage boys, being outside, and I guess she loves Powerade because she drank 2 1/2 of them!

Kelsey has been a pretty good little bow hunter. She has always shot at a target and done pretty well. She learned on this trip however how fun it was to aim up in the sky and let the arrow just fly. It really gets some distance! She also learned that she needs to watch where it lands because we had to hunt around for it a couple of times!

This is the boys retrieving their arrows out of one of the targets. Kendal is right after them. She knows when she can and can not run around when the guys are shooting, and the guys are so safe with her and Kelsey. Thankfully.

Kendal loves the chips too. Her hamburger was forgotten once she saw the bags of chips. She is her father's daughter also!

Kelsey shot her BB gun and she did a great job. She was shooting at a box and she hit pretty close to where she was aiming every time.

Here are the guys and their bows. It was good for them to get out of town and really shoot. Some of the neighbors have not been the nicest about their little hobby, so it was fun to get out in the hills where nobody cared if they were shooting.

This is Matt and Kelsey looking for her arrow again!

It was a beautiful afternoon in the mountains. We should do that more often, just a little afternoon trip with a burger fry, it was perfect.

Me and my girls. Even though they love being with their dad and doing 'daddy things', they love their mom too and are quite the girls when they want to be.

When we got off the mountain we hooked up with one of Matt's employers, Brett, and his family for fireworks in Charleston and also back at our house. It was fun to play with their cute family for a few hours. Kelsey and Kendal liked having a few kids around.

After the fireworks at our house, they all scrambled onto the tramp. Our 2 kids, Brett and Meechelle's 4 kids, and 5 of the 15 year olds were jumping and of course screaming. Those 3 bow shooting boys attracted a few girls over. It is funny how that works. Just yesterday 3 cute girls from our stake had to ride their bikes by Derek's house (across the street) a few times just to see if he or any of his buddies were around. It is so cute, I have to admit.